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E3 2008: This Is Vegas Impressions

This Is Vegas is Midway's sandbox game that takes place on the casino strip of Las Vegas. The background of the game revolves around a real estate mogul who has bought out the land, and hopes to make Vegas a much more family friendly location. That's where your character comes in in an effort to keep the sin and grit of Las Vegas alive.

This Is Vegas is a multi-dimensional type of game, as you aren't required to simply run around and kill. You'll have various tasks to perform throughout the game. One example we were shown had us helping out at a friend's night club. Your friend explains that business has been slow, so she asks you to raise the appeal of the place by performing a number of tasks. The first task we see is bartending. As the bartender, night club attendees will ask you for drinks, to light their cigarettes, among other things. You'll have to respond by correctly tapping the button assigned to that action. The better you do, the more appeal you generate for the club.

Then, you're asked to get people dancing. So a dancing mini-game is triggered, but don't expect Dance Dance Revolution stuff here, This Is Vegas features its own unique control scheme to pull of moves and it worked well. After you've accomplished that, you'll generate even more appeal for the club. Finally, you'll be asked to act as the bouncer and beat the hell out of anyone who causes trouble in the club, which is always fun.

The game relies on four aspects, and that was the "Party" aspect. Another aspect of the game we were shown was the gambling aspect which allows you to play a variety of casino games, including BlackJack, Poker, etc. as a means of making more money. Now, the better you play, the larger the crowd around you forms. You can also cheat, as players prior to you have purposely marked the cards with a clear chemical that your character's sun-glasses can spot. But you have to be careful, as excessive cheating can be caught by surveillance.

Fighting and racing are the other two elements of the game, which are rather self-explanatory. So far, from what we've seen, This Is Vegas has potential to be a good game. The game is still about a year away from release, so it's got plenty of time left in development.